We're Not Saying Gays Are Pedophiles, But…

We're Not Saying Gays Are Pedophiles, But…

As soon as the story broke that the Boy Scouts of America was considering a change in its national ban on gay members, Religious Right leaders immediately claimed that such a move would lead to an increase in child abuse in the Scouts.

But in a desperate attempt to play the victim, the very same conservative activists are now upset that they are facing criticism over their attempts to connect homosexuality with pedophilia.

The American Family Association’s Sandy Rios invited Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality onto her show today to defend her repeated attempts to link homosexuality with pedophilia, all the while claiming that she didn’t really say it, except that she did.

Rios: The push back to me about this topic, I get emails about ‘how dare you say that,’ they say that I say this, I didn’t, but I am indicating it or hinting at it, that all homosexuals would go into Scouting because they were recruiting, looking for love interests, sexual objects. Is that fair Peter?

LaBarbera: I just think there’s so many levels on the Scout issue. First of all, just the whole thing of biology, I have a thirteen year old daughter, I don’t care how noble a guy is I wouldn’t want him out in a tent with my daughter. Do we want these young boys—and the fact is you read the writings of some of these men, I’m sorry it’s not nice, ‘hairless boys,’ you see this in the writings over the years, do we want that temptation in the Scouts? No. Also it’s already on record. We know that homosexual pedophiles go where the boys are. Whether it’s the Catholic Church, the schools, coaches—

Rios: Shall we say Jerry Sandusky.

LaBarbera: Jerry Sandusky, the Boy Scouts. This is already a record. Homosexuality and the Boy Scouts do not mix and it’s just something that’s not appropriate and parents don’t need that worry. You have the fact of the other problem, which there’s a lot of in homosexual life, is this boy-on-boy predations.

Responding to a listener named Lawrence, Rios said that schools should once again prohibit gays and lesbians from teaching or any job involving children because they have “sexual aberrations in their life,” arguing that openly gay teachers “opened the gates to all kind of stuff” like female teachers who sleep with male students.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/were-not-saying-gays-are-pedophiles

4. I don't have the statistics but yes, you are correct.....

The vast majority of pedophiles are men engaged in the abuse of young girls. Racially I would expect in this country that since whites are still the majority, the majority of pedophiles are heterosexual white men.

What these people fail to understand is there is a big difference between a pedophile (attracted to pre-pubescent children of one or other gender) and homosexuals (adults attracted to other adults of the same gender).

Pedophiles seek out children. I believe there is a gender attraction element to this ...i.e. a heterosexual pedophile man is attracted to young girls whereas a homosexual pedophile man is attracted to young boys. But otherwise the issue is they seek out vulnerable children and often exploit leadership or power roles to prey on their victims.

Homosexuals, not homosexual pedophiles, seek out adults of the same gender.

To exclude homosexuals from leadership in the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts would mean excluding male priests from any contact with pre-adult females. That is totally absurd.

You ferret out pedophiles and prevent them from having inappropriate contact. You do not exclude homosexual or heterosexual adults from engaging with children of either sex.

52. Probably about same ratio as Straight to Gay,

69. Agreed. However, it is probable that the ratio majority of

perpetrators of sexual abuse against children are heterosexual males.

Not all sexual abusers of children are classified as pedophiles.

The global prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 19.7% for females and 7.9% for males, according to a 2009 study published in Clinical Psychology Review that examined 65 studies from 22 countries. Using the available data, the highest prevalence rate of child sexual abuse geographically was found in Africa (34.4%), primarily because of high rates in South Africa; Europe showed the lowest prevalence rate (9.2%); America and Asia had prevalence rates between 10.1% and 23.9%. In the past, other research has concluded similarly that in North America, for example, approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as 'friends' of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. Most child sexual abuse is committed by men; studies show that women commit 14% to 40% of offenses reported against boys and 6% of offenses reported against girls. Most offenders who sexually abuse prepubescent children are pedophiles, although some offenders do not meet the clinical diagnosis standards for pedophilia.

6. "Hairless boys. You see this in the writings over the years."

7. Just a question

Reading over the years about sexual abuse of young boys by priests and today reading about 30,000 pages released about sexual abuse by priests would that not make them both pedophiles and homosexuals?
So wondering about homosexual scout leaders is I think legitimate for parents. It has nothing to do with what political party you belong to.

16. I am sure they allowed it

20. I read it several times. It implies something horrible.

I do not know how you meant it but it came out horrible.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240220886This is a meta post on your post. Someone alerted on you and a jury kept it. If you wish to defend yourself you might want to do it here as well.
I found your post disgraceful.

"That's because you just hate" coming from a poster who has already been banned for vile homophobia. Please hide this personal attack.

JURY RESULTS

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Tue Feb 12, 2013, 10:09 AM, and voted 3-3 to LEAVE IT ALONE.

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: What. The. Fuck!! Please jury HIDE this nasty piece of work disguised as a concerned citizen.
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given

54. No, sweetie.

This punctuation mark-?- at the end of a sentence implies a question. A period-.- implies a statement.
Did they not teach you that in second grade? See, that's a question. They must not have taught you that in second grade. That is a statement.

--from the daughter of a gay woman and niece of a gay man...who is not a pedophile.

27. +1

51. if that's true, then you should avoid posting homophobic things

Another good thing for non-homophobes to do is to actually listen and try to understand when people react angrily to something such as this. Your post was offensive, clearly, to a number of people. I suggest trying to understand why it inspired such anger, rather than simply insisting that their reactions are flawed. That's not cool at all.

53. No; you've already been shown that it was a statement - see reply #26

Don't try to hide behind "I was only asking a question" BS (not that it's often a valid excuse for anyone else, either). You made a statement. That's what you are being held accountable for. That's what is appalling about your post, and you whole attitude.

I notice that you haven't tried to answer #26; you've just tried to use the "all I did was ask a question" lie on someone else.

60. Poor you.

If you are the 'proud Liberal' you claim to be, you would know that your question is off the charts wrong. You would also know that this kind of bigotry would bring a bunch of anger raining down on you. And rightfully so. So, what was your real purpose in asking this 'question'?

34. I really wonder if you read your own post.

36. Yup sure did I wrote it

And not a single reply other that attacks, Juries, and bullshit. Not a single person responded with a comment other than that. Last night my granddaughter stayed over, she is 9 years old.

She said a boy at school was calling people gay and wanted to know what it meant. So I explained it to her and told her that it was not right what he was saying.
People are born that way just like you were born the way you are. And gay parents have children too they adopt them.
So to say I am homophobic and all the other hatred on this post really is bullshit. All I did was ask a question that no one seems to want to answer.

50. It wasn't a question.

43. Take away whatever intentions you had with that post and look at it again.

I and many other GLBT members and allies read your post and saw it as a statement rather than a real question. So if I were you I would reread it again and ask what a gay man like hrmjustin takes from my post. By the way I feel it is not something parents should worry about that gay men will become scout leaders. I think parents should be more worried about the bigotry in the boy scouts of America. Most people here think that should be a common sense answer.

46. Are there some scout leaders who would be pedophiles?

Of course. In fact I'm certain there are some now when gays aren't allowed to be scout leaders.

I think a large part of the issue with the Catholic church and pedophilia was that priests had no outlet for sexual desire due to the celibacy and having a very male dominated power structure, most of the victims would be boys. That's not to say it's an excuse that if you can't get laid, go find a kid, but that it promoted a culture of secrecy around sex. The scouts don't make one be celibate, in fact aren't most scout leaders parents?

And the larger issue with the Catholic church isn't that some small percentage of priests abused kids, it's that the church actively participated in covering it up. If the church had been forthcoming and removed and reported problem priests, they wouldn't have had nearly the amount of trouble.

Oh and pedophilia and homosexuality aren't the same thing or even linked. It's inaccurate to say that the Catholic church example is one of homosexual child molestation. It's far more accurate to say that it was a systemic male to male child molestation. But again, the Catholic church being so male dominated was structurally predisposed to male adult to male child molestation. Many child molesters don't have a consistent gender preference for their victims. It's about opportunity. Some have a fixation on a particular set of physical characteristics, but that can be unrelated to whatever relationships they attempt with other adults.

I'm surprised your post was left standing. You asked a very loaded question that preconceived that homosexuality and child molestation/pedophilia are related and that parents had a right to be concerned that only homosexual scout leaders were a threat to molest their kids.

47. "Reading... about sexual abuse... by priests"— and from that you judge homosexuals?

Firstly, are you calling priests gay? I mean... they are known to wear some pretty fabulous hats and all... but I'm not sure that that is sufficient grounds to say that they're homosexuals.

Secondly, if priests aren't truly representative of homosexuals... then why in the name of Quetzalcoatl would you deem it anything other than ridiculous to use their behavior as a yardstick for judging the fitness of homosexuals for Anything?

Properly speaking, all your "reading over the years" should really indicate to you is that wondering about priests as scout leaders is {you} think legitimate for parents.

I know I get nervous at the idea of my son spending too much time in the company of priests... ever since that one time when one of them lopped of a piece of his dick.

What about you? Do you warn your children about the dangers of being around priests?

64. Because it's much more convenient to blame it on the gays.

59. Sexually abusing young boys

who have not yet reached puberty would make someone a pedophile. Not a homosexual.

"Celibate" priests or married men/women who do so are not classified as gay. They are pedophiles, regardless of their sexual identity. It's completely different.

And what you are implying with your question here and your follow up answer is bigoted and homophobic. You've argued down thread that you were simply asking a question. But it's more of an implication. Sometimes we say things and don't realize how horrible they sound. I've been guilty of that in the past. But this sounds pretty horrible. Hence the responses you've received.

63. The term of art for most of the rapist priests is Ephebephile

Ephebophilia is the primary or exclusive adult sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term "chronophilia". Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction. In sexual ethics, it may be defined as a sexual preference for girls generally 14–16 years old, and boys generally 14–19 years old. Some authors define ephebophilia as a sexual preference for pubescent and adolescent boys.
In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: for instance, ephebophilia to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, hebephilia to refer to the sexual preference for earlier pubescent individuals, and pedophilia to refer to the sexual preference for prepubescent children. However, the term pedophilia is commonly used to refer to any sexual interest in minors below the legal age of consent, regardless of their level of physical, mental, or psychological development.

68. I had to do a great deal of research on child sexual abuse at one point

for a place where I used to work. I talked to a number of prosecutors and psychologists.

The attraction adults have for children exists independently of any attractions they have for adults. Many men who molest boys are attracted to women in their adult relationships. Some men who are attracted to children don't have and aren't interested in adult relationships. The issue of pedophilia has nothing to do with homosexuality or heterosexuality. They are just completely unrelated issues.